Brady Skjei scored the lone Nashville goal as the Predators fell to the St. Louis Blues by a 4-1 final on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result sees the Preds drop their third-straight outing overall and the first of three meetings against the Blues over the next 10 days.
As has been the case more often than not as of late, the Predators outshot their opponent again on Tuesday night, but they weren’t overly pleased with certain facets of their game that led to the loss.
“It wasn't our best,” Skjei said. “We talked about coming into it that this is a team that feeds off transition and turnovers, and I think we were a little sloppy with the puck, and kind of fed their transition a little bit, definitely at the start. I thought we got better in the second period, and then [in the] third period [we gave one up], and it's tough to come back, so not the result we wanted. I think we can definitely learn from this and get better.”
“I was disappointed [in how we handled St. Louis’ transition game],” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “It’s something that we harped on and talked about and were just reluctant to do it. We kind of did it in L.A., and kind of like a lot of our game, where we just consistently can't do certain things night after night. It's almost like it's not much fun, and we don't want to do it. We gave them free offense, and we knew that going in, and that's what's a little bit disappointing, the frustrating part about it.”
St. Louis had a 2-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes courtesy of goals from Justin Faulk and Jake Neighbours, and the visitors got another when Jordan Kyrou beat Juuse Saros late in the second stanza.
But, before that middle frame was out - with 0.6 seconds on the clock, to be exact - Skjei’s one-timer on a feed from Steven Stamkos eluded Blues goaltender Joel Hofer to give the Preds life. That was as close as the home team came, however, and Kyrou added another before the night was out.
The physicality was prevalent between the two division rivals with a pair of fights that came after thunderous hits, including a play that saw Preds forward Michael McCarron assessed a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct.
“I think there's a bit of a rivalry, for sure,” Preds forward Zach L’Heureux said. “It was an emotional game tonight, and I'll be expecting the same thing in the future games. That's what we like playing for. It's what gets you going and gets you motivated to play. So, definitely looking forward to it.”
The Preds will see the Blues two more times over the next nine days, and they’ll not only look for a better effort on those occasions, but also as the homestand continues in Nashville the rest of the week.
“I think the position we're at right now, I was hoping for us to be a little bit more emotionally attached to the game to start,” Brunette said. “I understand coming off a trip, these games sometimes are hard to get up for, but we came out flat when they came out like they wanted to play. And in this League when you're not ready to play, it's a hard League. It took us a while to get into the game, and then by the time we got into it, obviously, that third goal is too late for us to really have a big chance. When you get down 3-0 in this League, it's hard enough.”
Notes:
Michael Bunting made his Nashville debut after skating in his first two games with the Predators last week in California. Forward Jakub Vrana and defenseman Jordan Oesterle were healthy scratches for the Preds on Tuesday.
Goaltender Juuse Saros appeared in his 400th NHL game; defenseman Nick Blankenburg skated in his 100th NHL outing.
Nashville’s homestand - and Ford Military Appreciation Week - will continue on Thursday when the Preds host Anaheim before Toronto comes to town on Saturday evening.
